Activity 7: The Kindertransport
Leaving family and friends to come to the UK was often a difficult decision for both the Kinder (the refugee children) and their parents. They had no idea how long they would be in Britain and what would become of their family.
Read the following sources about the Kindertransport. You can divide the reading between the people in your group. After reading discuss the task that follows. It requires you to consider the difficulties associated with choosing to become a refugee.
Franzi Groszmann, mother of Lore Segal:
In no time, the suitcase was gone, the child was gone, the other children were gone – just emptiness. Then we turned around and went home. I did not talk. It was awful.”
“I knew that I ought to want to send her away, but I couldn’t imagine to give permission for her to go. My husband said, ‘She must go.’ And he didn’t listen to me. He just arranged everything for her. And I had to give in, and I saw in the end that he was right. But the hurt is unbelievable. That cannot be described.
Jack Hellman, Child:
“My first impression of Waddesdon Manor was it was like a dream, like a castle I’ve seen in pictures. The Cedars was a servants’ house, 26 of us lived in the Cedars. The first thing we did was throw a soccer ball on the lawn and kicked it around. And the local boys wanted to see what was all of a sudden being brought into their little village. When it was time for dinner, they said, ‘We’ll see you tomorrow.’ I was so excited – I was absolutely so exuberant, I ran into my house mother and I told her, ‘Somebody who’s not Jewish wants to see me tomorrow.”
Inge Sadan, Child:
“To be a refugee is the most horrible feeling because you lose your family, you lose your home, you’re also without an identity. Suddenly, you’re a nothing. You are just reliant on other people’s good nature, and help and understanding.”
Ursula Rosenfeld, Child:
“The parting was terrible. That’s the one thing I have never forgotten in all my life. She [her mother] had been so controlled. She’d always been a sort of solid support to us and suddenly she showed her feelings, and it was terrifying, really terrifying. We saw this face which showed all – all the hurt and agony she’d been through. And I can still see my father that mealtime, but I would have liked to have had a happier image of my mother. That’s the only image: This contorted face, full of agony. It’s very sad.” |
Eva Hayman, Child:
“We had about a fortnight before we left and into that fortnight both mother and father were trying to give the instructions, the guidance that they hoped to have a whole life to give.”
(Sources from Warner Brothers, Into the Arms of Strangers website)
Click here for the follow-up task.
